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"From its contacts with worship, poetry, drama, entertainment, dance, ceremony, the military, the hunt, and the life of the lower classes, music in the early 18th century developed a thesaurus of characteristic figures, which formed a rich legacy for classic composers. Some of these figures were associated with various feelings and affections; other had a picturesque flavor. They are designated here as topics -- subjects for musical discourse. Topics appear as fully worked-out pieces, i.e., types, or as figures and progressions within a piece, i.e., styles. The dinstinction between types and styles is flexible; minuets and marches represent complete types of composition, but they also furnish styles for other pieces" (Leonard Ratner, Classic Music)